JPMorgan Chase said Monday it has tentatively agreed to settle claims by victims of the sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein.
Terms of the settlement in U.S. District Court in Manhattan weren’t disclosed within the announcement, which got here just hours before a judge ruled that the case can proceed as a class-action lawsuit.
“The parties in Jane Doe 1 v. JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. have informed the Court that they’ve reached an agreement in principle to settle the putative class motion lawsuit related to Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes, which is subject to court approval,” the bank said in a news release.
“The parties consider this settlement is in one of the best interests of all parties, especially the survivors who were the victims of Epstein’s terrible abuse,” JPMorgan added.
The settlement announcement comes one month after Deutsche Bank, where Epstein became a client after he was forced out by JPMorgan in 2013, settled with Epstein victims for $75 million. JPMorgan’s litigation with the U.S. Virgin Islands is ongoing.
Monday’s settlement stems from claims filed last 12 months by an unnamed woman, using the pseudonym Jane Doe, that the bank knowingly benefited from and facilitated Epstein’s sex trafficking operation. The lady, who alleges she was raped and trafficked, sued on behalf of a “large number” of other victims of that operation.
“All of us now understand that Epstein’s behavior was monstrous, and we consider this settlement is in one of the best interest of all parties, especially the survivors, who suffered unimaginable abuse by the hands of this man,” JPMorgan said in a separate statement Monday morning.
“Any association with him was a mistake and we regret it. We might never have continued to do business with him if we believed he was using our bank in any strategy to help commit heinous crimes,” the bank said.
Brad Edwards, an attorney for the lead plaintiff within the case, lauded the “enormously useful” support the Virgin Islands provided to Epstein’s victims. “We recognize the importance of the federal government’s continued litigation against JPMorgan Chase to forestall future crimes,” Edwards said in a press release.
JPMorgan stays headed for an Oct. 23 trial with the U.S. Virgin Islands in its lawsuit over the bank’s relationship with Epstein. JPMorgan’s claims against former executive Jes Staley, who was friends with Epstein, are also energetic, the bank said. JPMorgan argues that Staley is liable for any civil liability a jury might find within the Epstein case. It’s also seeking to claw back greater than $80 million in pay from the previous executive.
“We’re gratified to listen to in regards to the settlement that may provide victims of Jeffrey Epstein some compensation for JPMorgan Chase’s role in facilitating Epstein’s crimes against them,” a spokesperson for the Virgin Islands Attorney General said in a press release.
“The U.S. Virgin Islands will proceed to proceed with its enforcement motion to make sure full accountability for JPMorgan’s violations of law and forestall the bank from assisting and cashing in on human trafficking in the longer term. The united statesVirgin Islands is committed to protecting women and girls who could otherwise turn into victims going forward,” the spokesperson said.
The victim and the Virgin Islands, where Epstein owned a personal island where he would sexually abuse girls, each claim JPMorgan continued working with Epstein after learning he had been a predator, and facilitated his sex trafficking crimes. The Virgin Islands’ government, nonetheless, is pushing forward, pointing to multiple latest exhibits featuring email chains that show more concern inside the bank about Epstein than was previously known, especially amongst its legal and compliance staff.
The announcement comes greater than per week after JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon gave a deposition within the Epstein cases. On Friday, lawyers for the Epstein victim, called Jane Doe 1 in documents, asked the court to reopen Dimon’s deposition.
The accuser’s lawyers also sought to reopen the depositions of Mary Erdoes, who’s CEO of JPMorgan’s asset and wealth management division; Mary Casey, who was Epstein’s banker for a couple of decade at JPMorgan; and a fourth person, only identified within the filing as JPMorgan’s “representative.” All 4 can be asked about documents turned over after their initial depositions, in keeping with a filing.
JPMorgan has denied wrongdoing and says it regrets having had Epstein as a client. Dimon had said he barely knew of Epstein until 2019, when federal authorities arrested him.
Certainly one of the late-produced documents was a timeline that referenced emails wherein Staley, the one-time JPMorgan executive, asks Epstein an issue. (Staley left one other big bank, Barclays, in late 2021 after a probe into his Epstein relationship.)
“Plaintiff would have confronted JPMC’s CEO, Mr. Dimon, with this document during his deposition had it been produced in a timely manner,” a legal filing said.
JPMorgan has said Dimon didn’t review Epstein’s accounts when he was a client there from 1998 through 2013, which is when JPMorgan severed its relationship with him. That termination happened years after multiple concerns were raised inside the bank about keeping him as a client and five years after he pleaded guilty to a Florida state charge of soliciting sex from a minor.
Epstein died in 2019 from suicide in a Recent York jail, weeks after federal authorities charged him with trafficking girls for sex.
Despite his criminal history, Epstein nonetheless cultivated friendships and relationships among the many richest, strongest people on the earth, including Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, Prince Andrew of the UK and former presidents Bill Clinton and Donald Trump.
